Captive screw assembly



Feb. 1, 1949. R. J. 'WHELAN EI'AL 2,460,613

CAPTIVE SCREW ASSEMBLY Filed April 12, 1945 v /7 I k I E i R Eon-"mow? W25 I L/W A TTOENEKS Patented Feb. 1, 1949 UNI TED T lCE i CA-P'EIVES-CREWiKSSEMBLY Roderick J. Whelen and Robert A. =Rcich, Berea,

Qhio, assignors to ,The Ohio Nut dz Bolt .Com- .pany, Berea, Ohima cornorationofOh-io Application April 12', 1945, Serial -'N0.'=58'7,864

This invention relates to captive :screws, bolts and :the like, and assemblies embodying such devices. ,In the following -specification,.we have described aapreferrediorm of our invention as it .rmayfldeapplied to thumb screws used to secure .a.

.cover to a box. Those skilled in the art will apipreciate that :our invention may :be applied to :screws, bolts and threaded rods of various types, and in the specification and claims the term screw is intended" to include all such threaded devices. Those skilled in the artalso will appreciate that the invention is useful in other enwiromnents and for other purposes. Therefore, :i-tfis tobe understood that the following descripvtionzis given by way-of example-only, and'that the inventionds not'limited to'the precise structure boxes are open. .Devices of this general nature ave :been extensively used, but have beengrel'av.tively expensive as compared to ordinary screws, v.for captive screw assemblies heretofore known :have required thatthe shank of the screw be machined to a isnialleridiameter than nonnal, or that additional devices. such as special lock -wash- :ers-of expensive construction beem-ployed to prevent loss of the screw, or that the cover or EDaIZtiHWVhiCh the screw is tobe retained be deaf. med after the screw isassembled with it. 213 :this -last'type :Of device, thescrew isordinarily apermanently locked in the cover or other .part and cannot be :removed therefrom without destroying or :at ,least substantially deforming the part.

'ilt sis accordingly agen-eral object of the present invention to provide captivescrews and vcaptive iscrew assemblies in which the defects of .meiziouslyknown-assemblies are eliminated and :thembjections'noted above vare overcome; Another .object is the :provision of captive screws rand-zcaptive screw assemblies wherein the screws are retained against accidental displacement, rhutzcanibe removed easilyif desired, and which reqnirezlro threading or deformationof the part d Claims. (CL 292- 1251) in which the screw -;is secured and. no special locking washers :to secureth-e screwsiintposition. Another object is'gthe provision of -captivescrew assemblies in which ordinary low cost screws with rolled 'ithreads may be employed without requiring any additional machining operations ron t-hesha-nks of the screws. ifurthersobject is the zprovi-sion of captive screws and captive-screw assemblies which can ;be :hroduced andassembled atio-W cost as compared to prior devices. ther objects andadvantages of our invention-will ibecomezapparent from the following description of a npreferred form thereof; reference bein g made tothe accompanying drawings. The essenrtial characteristics aresummarized in the claims.

Referringto the drawings, --in which -.a ;pre icrred form of the invention is illustrated-{Fig- 1 is a plan view of a box {embodying two identical screws of our invention; Figure 2'--is:a cross sectional viewof the 'bOX2Of Figure 1 taken along'the line '2-45 of Figure ;l; Figure 3 isan ceniarged detail of one *of'llhe screwsandassociated parts 'in assembled position; and Figure 4 is .a :similar view but showing the :partsdisassembled and illustrating the relative dimen- :sions of the parts whereby the loss of theascrew :from the box cover -is-prevented.

:A-s illustrated in our drawings, captive vscrew "assemblies made according to v, our invention may be applied, for example, to a box B having a jcover'C which is-secured in placeby the thumb straits .S, the cover being hinged to the box :as eg -t. l

Oneio-f thBIQaIJtiVL-EBCFGXV assemblies is-shown detail Figures '3 and i. .As illustrated therein the unthreaded bodyvor shank :1 lot the screw s, -passeslthroug-h the unthreaded- -opening 1,2 in the-cover, the-head of the screw .being lar er .thanthe opening 42 and engagingthe upper surface of the cover surrounding the opening 42 :and the threadedportion is being in threaded engagement with the bracket 15 which is .suitably secured, for example-by welding-to the wall of .the box n. The threaded openin in the bracket is indicatednt t6; the relationship be- :tween the screw vand the other parts is such that the threads ill of the screw ,make normal threaded engagement with the threads i in the opening iii of the bracket so; that the cover is .seouredinnl-ace by connection of amplestrength. lrhesbody -ll of the screw-has ia-diameterabout .mid-wayhetween the major and minor diame- :15815 of the threads M and passes through the opening l2- in :the cover with sufficient-clearance so that the screw may align itself with the threaded opening H5 in the bracket, thus the formation of the opening in the cover need not be carried out with any great degree of accuracy. The above-described parts of the assembly, therefore, can be manufactured at low cost for the screw S is an ordinary thumb screw preferably having the usual rolled threads and which does not require any special operations; the bracket 15 merely has a normally threaded opening to receive the threads of the screw, and the cover C requires nothing more than the punched opening [2 of suiiicient size to freely pass the threaded portion M of the screw S.

In order to prevent accidental loss of the screw S when, for example, the box cover is in the open position shown in broken lines in Figure 2, a nut N is mounted on the unthreaded body of the screw as shown particularly in Figures-3 and 4. The nut N is freely slideable on the body H of the screw S, et cannot be accidentally displaced therefrom. To illustrate that the nut may be moved along the body of the screw and is in now-gripping relation to members C and I5, it is shown above the upper end of the threads M in Figure 3, although ordinarily gravity would cause the nut to slide down into contact with the uppermost thread i 4 when the assembly is in the position shown. Thus the nut will effectively prevent loss of the screw even though the box cover be inverted as shown in broken lines in Figure 2. The nut also is arranged so that it can be threaded on and off of the threads H! of the screw without difficulty, and thus the screw can be assembled with the cover or removed therefrom with ease, without requiring any tools or any deformation of the cover.

The nut N is provided with a threaded opening I 8 which has threads [9 of the same type major diameter and pitch as threads designed for normal engagement with the'threadedpor- -tion M of the screw S. However, the threads of 'the screw and such that the nut will slide readily on the shank of the screw, the major diameter of the threads I4 is related to the threads 19 so that the nut cannot be removed from the screw except by carefully starting the screw on the threaded portion l4 and unscrewin the nut from the screw. As the nut is larger than the opening l2 in the cover, as long as the nut is in place with the cover between the nut and the head of the screw, the screw cannot be removed from the cover and the nut, once it is screwed onto the body, is not subject to accidental displacement.

By this construction the screw S makes normal threaded engagement with the threads I! of the bracket thus insuring ample strength in the threaded connection. The body H of the screw passes freely through the opening l2 in the cover the screw merely requires that the body of the screw be left unthreaded for a portion of its length in accordance with customary practice. The unthreaded port-ion need have no accurately controlled dimension so long as, its length is at least equal to the combined thicknesses of the cover and nut. No threads are required in the cover and thus the openings 12 can be produced by Punching operations which can be carried out rapidly and at very low cost. 1

The nut can be manufactured at extremely low cost on ordinary nut making equipment. Thin stock may be used, for about 1 /2 or 2 threads are sufiicient. The threading operation can be carried out rapidly with standard taps, it only being necessary to punch the opening I8 of a size sufficient to clear the shank H and then carry out the threading operation in the usual manner, producing the desired truncated threads at low cost. The cost of the nut is substantially less than the cost of threading or deforming the cover or of providing special locking washers, as heretofore requiredin captive screw assemblies. The .invention is particularly advantageous to the manufacturers of articles embodying captive screw assemblies, for the box manufacturer, for example, who manufactures a box embodying our captive screw assemblies does not 'need'to carry out any threading operation or any special forming operations on the covers in order to provide the loss-proof feature. 7

Although we have illustrated and described in considerable detail a captive screw assembly incorporating our improvedfeatures it will be understood that variations and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of our invention. We do not, therefore, wish to be limited to the specific form herein shown and described but claim as our invention all embodiments thereof coming within the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

. 1. In a captive screw assembly comprising a screw and two members to be secured together, the screw having a head, a threaded end portion and an unthreaded body having a diameter substantially equal to the pitch diameter of the threads, one of said members having an opening through which the threaded portion of the screw freely can pass, the other of said members being provided with a threaded opening adapted to make normal threaded engagement with the threaded portion of the screw; the improvement which consists in providing a nut on the screw having an opening therethrough of diameter sufficiently large to permit the body to pass freely therethrough but of lesser diameter than the major diameter of the threaded end portion, the opening of the nut being threaded with threads of major diameter, pitch and configuration to permit the threaded part of the screw to be screwed therethrough, the nut normally being disposed on the body of the screw between said members when the members are assembled and the unthreaded body of the screw having a length substantially greater than the combined thickness of the nut and the member having an opening through which the threaded portion of the screw freely can pass.

2. A captive screw assembly comprising two members and a screw for securing them together, the first member having an opening through which the screw can freely pass, the second member having an opening provided with threads adapted to mate with the threads of the screw. the screw having a head, a threaded end portion and anunthreaded body of a diameter intermediate the major and minor diameters ofthe threaded end portion thereof, and a nut slideably mounted for longitudinal movement on said unthreaded body, said nut being disposed between said two members when said members are secured together and having a threaded opening permitting the nut to be screwed onto and off of the screw but preventing accidental displacement thereof from the screw, the length of said screw body being substantially greater than the combined thickness of said first named member and said nut.

3. In combination with a member having an opening therein, a captive screw assembly comprising a screw having a head, a threaded portion and an intermediate unthreaded portion of a diameter intermediate the major and minor diameters of said threaded portion, the major diameter of the threaded portion being less than the diameter of the opening, whereby the screw can pass freely through the opening up to the head of the screw, a nut having an opening of a slightly larger diameter than the unthreaded portion of the screw, whereby the nut may slide freely on said unthreaded portion, said opening in the nut being of lesser diameter than the major diameter of said threaded portion and having threads of major diameter, pitch and configuration to permit the threaded portion of said screw to be screwed therethrough, the length of the intermediate unthreaded portion of the screw being at least equal to the length of the threaded portion and greater than the combined thickness of the member and the nut.

4. A captive screw assembly for detachably securing two members together including in combination a screw having a head, a threaded portion having rolled threads formed thereon and an intermediate unthreaded portion of a diameter substantially equal to the pitch diameter of said thread, said intermediate unthreaded portion being disposed between the head and said threaded portion and having a length at least equal to the length of said threaded portion, and a nut having an opening of slightly larger diameter than said unthreaded portion of the screw REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file'of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 381,463 Cook Apr, 17, 1888 608,892 Murray Aug. 9, 1898 748,078 Kaisling Dec. 29, 1903 1,750,769 Austin Mar. 18, 1930 1,927,780 Anderson Sept. 19, 1933 2,010,853 Dyer Aug. 13, 1935 2,041,613 Lincks May 19, 1936 Hansman Apr. 1, 1941 

